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Saturday, December 31, 2016

Tuesday, December 27, 2016

There is a marked difference between stabbing someone in the
back, and premeditated, coordinated betrayal. One is an act of cowardice, the
other is slimy and off-putting, and reveals evil intent in a way that leaves
you speechless, and wondering how some men can sink so low.

There is doing someone dirty, then there’s doing someone low
down dirty, as the kids like to say. What we did to Israel at the United
Nations recently was low down dirty. If you could blend the worst of Judas,
Brutus, and Benedict Arnold and somehow produce a singular action, it would
likely be the action the United States undertook regarding Israel and its vote
for UN resolution.

It’s one thing to feel a knife plunge into your back, it’s
quite another when the person stabbing you is kissing your cheek, shaking your
hand, and calling you brother while twisting the knife. We have done an awful,
awful thing, and if there was any doubt as to this current administration’s
feelings towards the nation of Israel, no shadow of doubt ought to exist any
longer.

What’s worse, is that they won’t even own up to their
actions, like some overgrown toddler who kicks a puppy in full view of seven
billion people, then vociferously denies having done it.

If this is the way we treat our allies, why would anyone want
to be our ally? If this is the way we treat supposed friends and partners in a
uniting cause, what assurance is there that we will step up and do the hard
thing when we chose betrayal over fidelity when no one was holding a gun to our
head, or putting pressure on us?

What we have to understand here if we have a hope of
processing just how nefarious this resolution is, is the fact that this is a
war against the God of Israel Himself, and the Jewish people are simply collateral
damage. The issue was never the settlements, it was the temple mount and
wailing wall, essentially Judaism’s most sacred religious sites.

Hatred for the one true God and anything that would remind
the world of Him will only continue to grow, and this latest shot across the
bow ought to remind us all just what these last days will look like, and allow
us to wrap our minds around the fact that the whole world will be against
Israel at some point in the near future.

Although I know many of you who read my writings count
yourselves among those who stand with Israel, there are some of you who would
simply shrug at what I have written, and wonder to yourself what it has to do
with us. We are, after all in America, so how could our betrayal of Israel
possibly affect us here in any way?

In order to unravel that yarn, we must first understand that
within the pages of the Pentateuch there are traditionally contextual passages,
ceremonially contextual passages, then there are general proclamations by God
Himself which amount to nothing less than covenants, that are neither
geographically contextual, nor have an expiration date.

Among God’s many proclamations, there is one which is covenantal
that applies to this recent event more than any other and it is neither
ceremonial nor traditional, but rather a covenant He made for all time, for all
peoples, and for all circumstances which had the seed of Abraham as its primary
and singular focus.

Genesis
12:1-3, “Now the Lord had said to Abraham: ‘Get out of your country, from your
kindred and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. I will
make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you
shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who
curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’”

What we have done is nothing
less than provoke the wrath of God by our actions, and though we might readily
forget many a thing – even who our friends are and who are enemies are – God
does not forget. God keeps His covenants and this ought to be a reason for
great concern and trepidation for this nation. God keeps His covenants, He does
it from a position of omnipotence rather than one of impotence, and so there is
nothing standing in His way, nothing that can stop Him, nothing that can keep
Him from carrying out His promise.

Deuteronomy
7:9-11, “Therefore know that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who
keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and
keep His commandments; and He repays those who hate Him to their face, to
destroy them. He will not be slack with him who hates Him; He will repay him to
his face.”

Saturday, December 24, 2016

For the past few weeks I’ve been buried under an avalanche of
hyperbole, baseless supposition, and borderline hysteria. Oddly enough, contrary
to what one might expect, these suppositions had less to do with the electoral
college, or the election, and more to do with Christmas, the validity of
Christmas, or whether or not we as Christians should even make mention of it.

With titles so grim and dire as to make any clickbait site
salivate at the potential of hits, I was bombarded with warnings ranging from
being physically punished to having my salvation stripped from me if I were to
commit the seemingly unpardonable sin of saying Merry Christmas.

If such hysteria were contained, if it was only a handful of
people forwarding the e-mails declaring that if you say Merry Christmas you are
unknowingly and unwittingly pledging fealty to Satan, then I’d let it go, and
move on to other matters. It does, however, become a problem when I get the ‘is
this true?’ e-mails along with the convoluted ramblings of lonely men who have
nothing better to do than to create an issue where no issue exists.

As such, here I go making friends again: First, I do not care
what day Jesus was born on! It could have been March 12, June 17, August 9, or
yes, even December 25. I am not celebrating a day; I am celebrating an event.
It is the reality of the birth of God’s son that we are remembering and
reminiscing over. It is the reality of God’s love made manifest and the hope of
mankind being born in a manger in Bethlehem.

It matters not a whit what day this took place. All that
matters is that it did. Jesus was born of a virgin, in a manger, in Bethlehem,
and the angels declared “For there is
born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”

The reality of Christ’s birth is not something we remember on
one day during the calendar year, it is a reality that we live every day of our
lives. It is something upon which we meditate and reflect because it was the
embodiment of God’s love for mankind made manifest in the living, breathing,
animated reality of Jesus Christ the Lord.

So, to answer publicly the questions I’ve received privately
throughout the past few weeks, I do not believe saying Merry Christmas is akin
to taking the mark of the beast, nor do I believe that reflecting upon the
birth of the Son of God is a sin, whether you do it on December 25th,
or on January 22.

As long as we remember that Christmas is not about glut and
gifts, or trees and treats, as long as we remember that we are celebrating an
event and not a day, and that this singularly history making event made a way
for us to be reconciled unto God, then Merry Christmas to you!